4,000 new homes plan goes to council

Developers have submitted the application for Maltkiln Village to Harrogate Borough Council planners to build 4,000 new homes on land around Cattal train station.

The scheme involves two new primary schools, doctor’s surgery and improvements to the station.

Richard France, Managing Director of Oakgate Group, said: “Our proposals have been designed with Cattal railway station at the heart of the new settlement, which connects Maltkiln Village directly to Harrogate, Knaresborough and York in around 20 minutes and the centre of Leeds in less than an hour. Around 90 per cent of the new homes would be within a ten-minute walk of Cattal station.”

Oakgate started consultation in 2017, and held public exhibitions in May and July 2018. An environmental scoping document was submitted in April 2017.

“As a result of consultation, we have made a number of amendments to the proposals,” said Mr France.

“These include plans for an additional primary school, with two now proposed as part of the plans as well as a number of highways and junction changes.

“The site boundary has also been extended to allow for more defined communities around the main village centre, while maintaining a sensible distance from existing villages such as Green Hammerton, Kirk Hammerton, Whixley and Cattal.

“We have also had a number of specific suggestions such as requests for more bungalows and housing to enable local people to downsize, and that is something we will consider.”

HBC has previously outlined an area in the draft local plan within the Green Hammerton/Cattal area.

In response to the council’s declared preference, the Oakgate Group has now submitted a planning application, which it says ‘has incorporated feedback from the pre-planning consultations.’

The Local Plan is due to go before government inspectors later this month, which will see up 20 days of public hearings held on the plan.

HBC has stated that a specific site within the Green Hammerton/Cattal area will be put forward following development of a ‘New Settlement Development Plan Document.’

Consultation will be held on a draft of this proposal in the spring/summer of 2019, before its own examination in 2020.

Depending on the outcome of the public hearings, and the findings of the Inspectorate, the Local Plan plan is expected to be adopted in the spring.

Other housing developers have put forward plans for new settlement sites across the district.

This includes Commercial Estates Group (CEG), who submitted their own outline application to build up to 3,000 homes and facilities on 175.3 hectares of land, bordered by the village of Green Hammerton to the North and Kirk Hammerton to the south of the site in 2018.

Developer Berkeley DeVeer also promoted plans for 1,500 homes, a garden village, just north of Wetherby between the old A1 (A168) and the A1(M) in 2017.

Should planning permission be granted, the Oakgate Group say work could start on the site in late 2020 and the first homes at Maltkiln Village being completed in 2022.

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